Moments
by Sara Wolfe
Summary: Life in the Halliwell household - a series of one-shot fics.
1. Hero

**Author's Note: **These are a series of Charmed one-shots that I'll be writing occasionally. Unless otherwise indicated, the individual chapters stand alone, and are not connected to each other. Most of the stories will be requests written for various readers; others will be random scenes and snippets. I'm keeping requests open, for the moment; if there's anything you've always wanted to see written, PM me or leave it in a review. Just, please keep it to one-shot ideas, or ideas that could be condensed down to a one-shot; I have enough plot bunnies running around that have me rewriting entire seasons, and sometimes the entire series.

This story is a request written for **Love2read23** who wanted: _I've been interested about Piper and Leo's daughter Melinda. I thought maybe she wasn't fighting demons with Wyatt and Chris because she didn't have powers but she's in the new Charmed comic books. Maybe she had her powers bound?_ **Love2read23**, I hope you enjoy the fic.

**Hero**

The problem with brothers – at least, the problem with her brothers – was that they were so overprotective towards her that they completely forgot about their own safety. For example, in the attack that had resulted in their current situation, both Wyatt and Chris had been more concerned with making sure that she stayed safe, rather than worrying about the demons attacking them. And, as a result, the demons had managed to overpower all three of them, dragging them into the Underworld.

Melinda Halliwell groaned, letting her head thump back against the wall of the cavern in the Underworld that she and her brothers were being held in. The impact sent a jolt of pain running through her skull, and she immediately regretted the action.

"This," she said, bluntly, as she lifted her head to glare at her older brothers, "is all your fault."

In emphasis, she rattled the chains that were restraining her arms above her head, and the noise echoed through the open space. But, unfortunately, it wasn't enough to wake up her brothers. Wyatt and Chris remained lying, limply, on the floor where they'd been dumped by their demonic captors.

Wyatt had a visible knot on his temple that had swelled to an alarming size. Chris had a gash on his forehead that was crusted over with dark, slowly drying blood. The part that she could see looked bad enough, but she was afraid that the rest of the gash continued up into his hair, where she couldn't see it. And both of them had been unconscious for far too long.

"Wake up," Mel pleaded, quietly, closing her eyes with a sigh when neither of them reacted to the sound of her voice.

"If they're lucky," a new voice spoke up, tauntingly, "they'll just die, without ever opening their eyes, again. Probably best, considering what the boss has planned for them if they do wake up."

"If you touch them," Mel threatened, lifting her head to glare at the smirking demon standing in the doorway, "I'll kill you."

"You?" the demon scoffed, laughing at her. "You're just a powerless little runt. What are you going to do?"

Still laughing, the demon disappeared, and Mel glared after him.

"Powerless, huh?" she muttered, furiously. "I'll show you powerless."

She looked up at the ceiling as though praying for inspiration, and that's when she saw it. The low ceiling of the cavern was pitted and marked with gaping holes, and stretching across the length of the cavern was a section of rock. It looked almost like a catwalk, and Mel thought that if she was careful, it would be able to hold her weight.

Stretching her hands up as far as she could through the shackles, she grabbed the chains anchoring her to the wall. She gave the chains a hard yank, but they didn't budge. Part of her was disappointed that the chains weren't loose enough in the wall to just come out, but she wasn't going to let it deter her. The chains seemed strong enough to hold her full weight, and she could work with that.

Mel braced a foot against the wall she was chained to, grateful that their captors hadn't thought to chain her legs down, too. Then, she pushed off with her foot, holding tightly to the chains above her head as she slowly lifted herself into the air. A second later, she lowered herself back to the ground, toeing her shoes off. She'd make better progress barefoot.

She put her other foot on the wall as soon as she was back in the air, and then, slowly, painfully, started to walk backward up the wall. She inched her hands up, slowly, one at a time, using the chains to pull herself further up the wall.

_'When we get home,'_ she thought, as she determinedly ignored the pain radiating from her shoulder muscles, _'I need to thank Mom for all those gymnastics lessons I took as a kid.'_

She'd practically bent herself into a pretzel by the time she was close enough to the outcropping, and every part of her body was screaming in protest. But, she forced the pain to the back of her mind and stretched her neck out until her fingers were brushing the top of her head. She eased one of the bobby pins out of her hair, holding it tightly between her fingers. Then she gripped at the rough surface of the wall with her toes, and she clung tightly to the chains and prayed.

She slowly moved her right leg away from the wall, stretching it up toward the outcropping. By some miracle, she managed to snag the outcropping with the heel of her foot, feeling the rough stone against the back of her ankle. She took a deep breath to prepare herself, tightening her already-punishing grip on the chains. Then, she pushed herself away from the wall, using her momentum to try and catch the outcropping with her other leg.

She got her second miracle of the day when she hooked her foot over the outcropping. She managed to get herself up enough so that her knees were hugging the outcropping, and then she went to work on the shackles.

She straightened the bobby pin as best as she could with one hand, getting rid of the rounded plastic ends in the process. Then, she started picking at the locks of her shackles. It was slow going, with the bad angle her hands were bent at, but finally she managed it.

As the shackles fell off her wrists, she fell away from the wall. A heart-stopping second later, she found herself hanging by her knees from the outcropping. She lost her grip on the bobby pin, watching in resignation as the piece of metal fell to the floor.

_'Guess that wouldn't have been much use as a weapon, anyway,'_ she thought, wryly.

Then, thanking Aunt Phoebe's insistence on her taking martial arts lessons, and in staying physically fit, she curled up at the waist until she could grab the outcropping. She hugged the stone with her arms while she considered her next move.

Unfortunately, she didn't exactly know what that move was going to be. She had no active powers, her spell-casting was an absolute mess, and being completely human meant that she didn't even have orbing as an option like her brothers did. Potions were her area of expertise, but she didn't exactly have an herb cabinet down in the Underworld.

_'Think, damn it,' _Mel scolded herself, when she couldn't figure a way to get herself, Wyatt, and Chris out of danger. _'You have no weapons, no reliable magic, and no idea when that demon is coming back.'_

That last concern was answered when the demon in question walked back into the cavern a few seconds later. He was so focused on Wyatt and Chris, still unconscious on the floor, that he didn't notice that she was gone, at first. And when he did, he was pissed.

_'Time to wing it,'_ Mel thought, when she watched the enraged demon turn on her brothers like they were somehow responsible for her escape.

When the demon got close enough, she let go of the outcropping. She fell, grabbing the demon when she hit him and dragging him down to the ground with her. The demon roared in outrage, grabbing her by the throat and squeezing.

Mel gasped for air, scrabbling desperately at the demon's hand. Black spots were dancing in front of her eyes when she managed to dig her nails into the soft skin on the inside of her attackers' wrist, forcing him to let go. As soon as she was free of the demon's painful grip, she jerked her knee up, hitting the demon in the groin and making him howl.

Rolling away, Mel put herself firmly between the demon and her brothers. She crouched on the balls of her feet, eyeing the demon warily as she reached back and placed two fingers lightly on Chris's neck, feeling for a pulse. She breathed a quiet sigh of relief when she felt Chris's heat beating, strong, beneath her fingers, and then she reached back to perform the same check on Wyatt.

A glint of movement out of the corner of her eye had her spinning back around in time to catch the demon rushing at her. Bracing herself for the inevitable impact, she lunged at the demon and hit his midsection with her shoulder, driving him backward a few feet. She knocked the demon to the ground, slamming his head into the ground.

A second later, a hot flash of searing pain ripped through her arm, and she looked down in shock to see blood flowing from a gash in her upper arm. She looked back down to the smirking demon, catching sight of the long-bladed dagger he was holding in his free hand.

"Thanks for the weapon," Mel told the demon, driving the smug smirk from his face when she slammed the heel of her hand into his throat.

As the demon choked for air, she grabbed the dagger that fell from his limp hand. Then, before her opponent could react, she drove the dagger into his chest, deep into his heart. The demon burst into flames with a scream.

"Powerless, huh?" she muttered, glaring at the blackened spot on the floor where the demon had been.

Then, she scrambled across the floor to where her brothers were still lying. Both of them were still breathing, but they were in bad shape. She needed to get help, now.

But, she wouldn't be able to get it in the cavern. She'd already tried calling for Paige when they'd first been captured, praying that her Whitelighter aunt was able to hear her. But, something about the area that they were in had been blocking her, because no rescue ever came.

"I'm going to be right back," she whispered, as she bent and kissed Wyatt and Chris on their foreheads. "I have to get somewhere where Aunt Paige can hear me call, but, I swear, I'm coming back."

Then, even though she hated herself for it, she stood up and left the cavern. She crept down the corridor, stolen dagger held in front of her, defensively, moving as quietly and as quickly as she could, and keeping alert for any suspicious noises.

She'd been running for about twenty minutes when she heard voices ahead of her. Slowing down, Mel plastered herself to the wall, hiding in a tiny crevice just as a pair of demons rounded the corner. The demons moved past her hiding spot, and Mel breathed a sigh of relief. And she regretted it a second later when the sound caught the attention of one of the demons, drawing both of them back to where she was.

"Aunt Paige!" Mel yelled, abandoning the need for silence for the hope that she was far enough away that the older woman could hear her. "Aunt Paige, help!"

As the demons advanced on her, scowls fixed on their faces, Paige orbed in behind them. The witch didn't say anything when she saw the demons; she simply clenched her fingers into a fist. Rings of orbs appeared around the demons' necks, tightening to choke the demons.

"New trick I learned," Paige said, conversationally, as she walked around the demons to Mel's side. "Mel, honey, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Mel told her, her voice tight with tension. "But, Wyatt and Chris aren't doing so well."

"Let us go, bitch!" one of the demons ground out, cutting off whatever Paige was about to say, and the woman leveled a dark glare at him.

"Do you know who I am?" she asked, softly. "Who my family is? Who _her_ family is?" she added, jerking her head back at Mel.

The demon's eyes went wide with terror as he took in Paige's implications. Paige, for her part, flexed her fingers, tightening the orb collars. A few seconds later, both the demons were vanquished when the collars went through their necks.

"Let's go get your brothers," Paige said, turning to look at Mel. "Lead the way."

"How'd you hear me so quickly?" Mel asked, as they ran back down the corridors. "I only called for you once."

"We found the scorch marks in the attic," Paige told her, tightly. "Piper's been out of her mind; we've been trying to find you for hours. I was trying to sense you when you called."

"I don't even know what they were after," Mel complained, and Paige shook her head.

"We'll find that out, later," she replied. "Right now, let's just get you out of here."

When they arrived back in the cavern, Paige immediately knelt beside Wyatt and Chris, holding a hand out over each of them. Her hands glowed with healing energy, and a few seconds later, Chris's eyes fluttered open, slowly. He looked around in confusion, staring up at Mel as she helped him sit up.

"What?" he mumbled, as he leaned against her, and then his gaze landed on his older brother. "Wyatt?"

"There's some swelling," Paige said, distractedly, as she poured healing energy into her nephew. "Wyatt took a pretty bad knock on the head."

Despite her aunt's light tone, Mel had studied enough medicine to know that any kind of swelling on the brain was bad news. She squeezed Chris's hand, hard, biting anxiously at her lip while she waited for Wyatt to wake up.

"Come on, Wy," she heard Chris whisper, beside her, his own grip punishingly hard. "Aunt Paige, do you need me-"

"Don't you dare, kiddo," Paige told him, not letting him finish his statement. "I just put that energy into you; you're not giving it up, now."

"But, Wyatt-" Chris protested.

"He's going to be fine," Paige answered, just as Wyatt opened his eyes.

"What happened?" he asked, his voice groggy as he leaned against Paige.

"Long story short," Paige replied, running her fingers lightly through his shaggy, blond hair, "your sister saved your lives."

"Really?" Wyatt asked, looking over at Mel with an expression of unmistakable pride on his face. "Way to go, Melly."

"Come on," Paige said, pulling him to his feet. "Let's get out of here, before any more demons come back."

"We can't orb out from here," Mel reminded her, and Paige nodded.

"Let's start walking, then," she said, leading them out of the cavern.

Twenty minutes later, they orbed into the kitchen. Piper was the first person Mel saw, and she threw herself at her mother, hugging her, hard.

"Thank god," she heard Piper mutter, as she held onto Mel. "I've been so worried. What happened?"

"They were after Melly," Wyatt spoke up, surprising her.

"Me?" she echoed, skeptically. "But, I don't even have any powers."

"You're pretty damn good with potions," Chris pointed out, blushing when Piper shot him a look. "Sorry, Mom."

"You're a pretty big threat, kiddo," Paige added, slinging an arm around her shoulders. "Don't count yourself out. Demons certainly don't."

"Well," Piper spoke up, shooting her youngest sister a pointed glare, "I'm glad that you're all right, Mel. And, thank you two," she added, glancing at her sons, "for protecting your sister."

"We didn't do anything," Wyatt said, as he leaned against the kitchen counter.

"Yeah," Chris added, "it was all Mel."

"Really?" Piper asked, looking curiously over at her youngest child.

"She saved our lives," Wyatt said, pride in his voice. "She's a hero."


	2. Guardians

**Author's Note: **This was written for** scifiromance**, who wanted**: **maybe one where Paige sees her adoptive parents after the birth of Henry Mitchell Jr. **Scifiromance**, I don't know if this was exactly what you were imagining, but I hope you like your request.

**Guardians**

"Aunt Paige? Are we done yet?"

Paige winced in sympathy when she heard the whining tone in Wyatt's voice that he was trying hard to hide. She'd been drafted into babysitting her nephews that morning, they'd spent all day running around town going to the doctor and getting her errands done, and, while her nephews had been model kids all day, she could sense that both boys had hit the limits of their patience.

"Sorry, guys," she said, apologetically, glancing back at them as she pulled into the parking lot of the bank. "We've just got one more stop to make, and then, I swear, we're done. We'll go do whatever you want, I promise."

"Can we go get ice cream?" Chris asked, an excited tone in his voice for the first time in hours. "Please, Aunt Paige?"

"Ice cream, it is," Paige said, as she parked the car. When her unborn baby kicked her stomach, she grinned. "And, I think your baby cousin wants ice cream, too."

"Everyone wants ice cream," Chris pointed out, sensibly, as they climbed out of the car. "Especially if it's pistachio."

"Eww," Wyatt said, automatically, like Paige knew he would. "Chocolate chip's better."

"Is not," Chris retorted, and Paige listened to their playful banter all the way into the bank.

They got into line, and Paige juggled her purse in her arms as she dug for a deposit slip at the bottom of the bag. She filled out the slip while they shuffled along, slowly, and she was two people from the front of the line when she started to get an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach, the same kind of sensation she got when she was sensing demons.

And she'd been a witch for far too long to ignore those kinds of feelings.

Deliberately dropping her pen on the floor, she crouched down to grab it, pulling Wyatt and Chris close to her in the process. The boys looked at her in confusion, but Paige motioned for them to be quiet before either of them could speak.

"Wyatt," she said, softly, nodding at a sign on the far side of the room, "do you see that sign for the bathroom?"

"Yeah," Wyatt said, quietly, following her gaze.

His voice quavered, slightly, as he picked up on her sudden tension, and Paige took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down.

"I want you and Chris to go in there, and stay there until I come to get you," she told the seven-year-old. "And, if you hear anything bad, I want you to orb straight to Magic School, no matter what."

"Hey, lady," a voice snapped from behind her. "Get a move on."

"Hold your horses," Paige snapped back, glaring at the man. "His shoe is untied."

"Aunt Paige," Wyatt whispered, nervously, when she turned her attention back to her, and she smiled, reassuringly.

"It's okay," she said, giving both boys a quick hug. "I'm sure everything is going to be fine. Just go, okay?"

After a moment, Wyatt nodded, taking Chris's hand and leading his brother across the room toward the bathroom. Paige watched them go, worriedly, and then she turned her attention to the rest of the bank. She moved forward, absently, as she focused her sensing power on the people around her.

The unsettling sensation was still there, in the pit of her stomach, and it got worse when she focused her power on a young man standing by the doors, staring down at the ground. He had his hands stuffed in the pockets of his oversized coat, and when he pulled one hand out to rub at his forehead, she could see him visibly shaking.

_'Something's wrong, there,'_ she thought, just a second before the young man jerked his other hand out of his pocket, aiming something at the ceiling.

She had a split second to register the object in his hands as a gun, and then he pulled the trigger, sending a bullet into the overhead lights. There was a sound like a small explosion, and the light shattered, raining a thousand shards of glass down on the floor. For just a second, there was absolute silence in the bank, and then the screaming started.

Paige could see the man's mouth moving, saying something, but she couldn't hear him over the frantic screams of the people around her. Then, the young man fired another round into the ceiling, and the screaming stopped as abruptly as it had begun.

"Everyone, shut up!" the young man yelled, his voice carrying across the large lobby. "Sit down!"

Everyone around her immediately dropped to the floor, and Paige found herself standing, alone, as she tried to lower herself to the floor. She swore, softly, under her breath when the young man's attention was instantly drawn to her, his eyes narrowing.

"I said, sit down!" he barked, furiously, and Paige flinched when she saw his hands shake on the gun. She didn't want to do anything to make him fire that thing, again.

"She's pregnant," a new voice snapped, and at a hand on her elbow, Paige looked over at her unexpected defender.

The man who'd gotten testy when she'd been moving too slowly in line was back on his feet, helping her to sit down on the hard floor. He glared, openly, at their captor as he helped Paige, his hands gentle on her arms as he guided her down to the floor.

"You all right?" he muttered, when they were both sitting, again, and Paige nodded, shortly.

"I'm fine," she murmured, quietly.

"Lucky for you that your boys had to go to the bathroom, huh?" he went on, and Paige smiled, tightly.

"Yeah," she agreed, hoping that Wyatt and Chris had enough sense to listen to her and stay where she told them to. "Lucky."

They both fell quiet when the gunman looked over at them, sharply, and Paige could feel her heartbeat ratchet up at the sight of the man's finger twitching nervously on the trigger.

_'Please,'_ she prayed, silently. _'Just take whatever you're after, and go. Just leave us alone, please.'_

"You okay?" the guy next to her muttered, when he saw her hands clenching into fists. Giving her large stomach a dubious glance, he added, "You're not going to go into labor, are you?"

"I'm not due for another two weeks," Paige replied, absently, and the guy breathed a quiet sigh of relief.

So, naturally, that was when she felt the first contraction hit.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Twenty minutes later, as yet another contraction hit, Paige clenched her jaw, tightly, gripping her neighbor's hand to ride out the pain. When the contraction ended, she let go of the man's hand, taking a deep breath.

"Sorry," she muttered, sheepishly, when she saw the man surreptitiously flexing his hand to try and get feeling back in his fingers.

"Little nervous, are we?" the man asked, dryly, shooting her a sidelong glance.

"I can't possibly imagine why," Paige retorted, softly, pasting an innocent smile on her face when their captor glanced over in their direction from where he was ordering the tellers to put money into bags.

Then, as the young man looked over to the far side of the room, a scowl fixed on his face, Paige twisted around to follow his gaze. Two minutes earlier, he'd let two of the other hostages up to go to the bathroom, with the threat of killing one of the rest of them if they tried anything. As promised, the two young women had returned, but to Paige's horror, they had Wyatt and Chris with them.

"What's this?" the young man demanded, glaring at the boys, and Paige's eyes narrowed at his tone, ready to jump up and defend her nephews at the first hint of danger, no matter how much pain she was in.

"We – we found them hiding in the bathroom," one of the girls stammered, nervously, staring at the gun the young man was still brandishing. "We didn't want them running out here and getting hurt, so-"

"Sit down," the young man snapped, gesturing impatiently at the rest of the group with his gun. "You, too," he growled at Wyatt and Chris, who cringed away from the young man.

The boys practically ran to her side, both of them shaking with fear. Chris crawled into her lap as soon as they sat down, and Wyatt plastered himself to her side, his eyes wide with terror.

"I'm sorry, Aunt Paige," he whispered, sneaking fearful glances at the man with the gun. "We tried to hide, like you said-"

"It's okay, sweetie," Paige reassured him, quietly, hugging the boy, tightly. "It's okay. Just stay right by me, okay?"

"I'm scared," Chris whimpered, burrowing into her arms, and Paige stroked a hand through his hair, gently.

"Everything's going to be okay," she murmured, softly, rocking the little boy in her arms. "I promise. Everything's going to be fine."

"Shut up over there!" their captor yelled, suddenly, whirling around and glaring at her. "No talking!"

"They're scared," Paige tried to explain, but the man wasn't going to let her finish.

"I don't care," he growled. "Just shut them up."

Chris, who was already practically vibrating with sheer terror, burst into hastily-muffled sobs at the tone in the young man's voice. Paige wrapped her arms around the five-year-old, shushing him, quietly, as he buried his face against her chest. But, she wasn't fast enough.

"I said shut up!" the young man yelled, stalking over to where they were sitting.

There was a wild look in his eyes, and he was waving the gun around, erratically, as he stalked over, ranting at her.

"If you can't keep those damn kids quiet-" he snarled at her, gesturing emphatically with the gun, and Paige saw his finger tighten involuntarily on the trigger.

Without even thinking about it, she grabbed Wyatt and Chris and shoved them behind her, twisting around and shielding them with her body.

"Bullet," she muttered, under her breath, as she heard the hammer of the gun fall.

There was a moment of white-hot pain as the bullet slammed into her spine, and then she could feel the hot piece of smashed metal form in the palm of her hand as she orbed it out of the air. Numbly, she let the bullet fall to the carpet, and then she followed it a second later.

The world went gray in front of her eyes as she crashed to the floor, and she could faintly hear Wyatt and Chris screaming in fear. She tried to reassure them that she was all right, but she couldn't hear herself speak over the outraged yells coming from the other hostages. She tried to move, but her limbs wouldn't cooperate. All she could do was lie there, helplessly, and pray for help to come.

** XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

She drifted through the pain. Around her, she could hear people shouting, with some of the voice bordering on hysterical. She managed to roll over onto her back, her head falling listlessly to the side, and she could see Wyatt and Chris sitting nearby, hugging each other tightly and staring at her in absolute fear.

_'It's going to be okay,'_ she tried to tell them, but she couldn't force the words past her lips. She couldn't do anything except lie there, bleeding on the floor.

_'Henry, I'm so sorry,'_ she thought, desperately, her husband's smiling face flashing through her mind. _'I love you, so much, and I wish-'_

_"Paige."_

She flapped her head weakly to the side, trying to locate the whispery voice. It sounded familiar, but in her hazy, pain-filled state, she couldn't place it.

_"Paige, hang on, sweetheart."_

There was that whispery voice, again, this time joined by another, just as familiar voice. Then, to her amazement, the air in front of her eyes started to shimmer. The air twisted, forming into two, vaguely human shapes, and then her parents stood in front of her, smiling sadly down at her.

"Mom?" Paige mumbled, her voice barely audible, but Christine Matthews nodded, encouragingly, crouching down next to her daughter.

_"Hang on, sweetheart,"_ she murmured, brushing a spectral hand across Paige's forehead. _"Help is on the way."_

"My baby," she whispered, panic filling her when she realized that her unborn child was in distress, his heartbeat racing, dangerously. "Mom-"

_"Your son is going to be fine," _her father told her, his voice filled with a quiet confidence. _'Paige-'_

Whatever else he was going to say was cut off when Wyatt and Chris crept across the floor to Paige's side. They both curled up next to her, seemingly oblivious of the ghosts standing nearby, and Paige started to wonder if she was hallucinating her parents.

On either side of her, the boys reached across her swollen stomach, linking hands. Then, both their hands began to glow with a soft light, healing energy pouring from them and into her baby. Paige could feel her baby responding to their power, his heart rate slowing down to a safe level. She breathed a quiet sigh of relief, but then her own pain ratcheted up when the boys dropped hands, their combined healing power dying down.

Her breath hitched, and she could feel her heart rate start to rise. Blackness was encroaching on the edges of her vision, and she clenched her hands into fists, trying to stay conscious.

_'Can't-'_ she thought, struggling against the darkness that threatened to overtake her. _'Wyatt and Chris need me-'_

_"It's all right, sweetheart," _her mother murmured, soothing, coolness shooting through Paige as Christine brushed her hand against her cheek. _"We've got you; just let go."_

"Can't-" she forced out, as a jolt of pain shot through her.

_"It's all right, Paige," _her father said, quietly. _"It's all right; we'll take care of you."_

Nodding weakly, Paige let her eyes fall closed. Her father had never lied to her, before, and she doubted that he'd start, now. So, she gave up the fight and let the blackness take over.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

When Paige woke up to white all around her, for a moment, she thought that she'd been transported Up There. For one wild second, she thought that she was dead, especially since she couldn't sense her baby, any longer, but she figured that she wouldn't hurt as much as she did if she was dead.

She tried to push herself up into a sitting position, but she stopped at a sudden pain that shot through her arms. There were IV lines going into her left arm, with slightly cloudy liquid slowly dripping into her veins, and there was a soft brace around her right wrist. She experimentally tried to flex her wrist, grimacing when her arm protested the movement.

_'Not going to try that one, again,'_ she thought, ruefully.

Looking around, she realized that she was lying in a room at San Francisco Memorial. It might have even been the same room that she'd woken up in after her car accident eight years ago, if the stain on the far wall was anything to go by. But, the room wasn't completely the same.

Then, she'd woken up alone, waiting for her sisters to get there. Now, Henry was curled up in a fold-out cot next to her bed, sound asleep.

She was starting to wonder how long she'd been unconscious, if Henry had fallen asleep waiting for her to wake up, but then he started to stir. He stretched on the cot, shifting slightly, and that was when she saw their son curled up on his chest, held safely in place in Henry's strong arms.

"He's beautiful," she whispered, instantly charmed by the sight of her sleeping infant.

_"Yes, he is," _a voice murmured, and she whipped her head around to see her parents standing at the foot of her bed.

"Mom?" she asked, incredulously. "Dad?"

_"Hello, sweetheart,"_ her father said, smiling at her.

"You're really here?" Paige asked, dubiously, wanting to make sure that she wasn't dreaming. When they both nodded, she continued, "And you were there, in the bank?"

_"We were there,"_ her mother confirmed. _"We're always with you, Paige."_

"I know," Paige said. "I just – I thought that maybe I was dreaming."

_"That was no dream,"_ her father told her. _"When we saw what was happening – we couldn't let you go through that, alone."_

"I'm glad you were there," Paige told them, and then she was interrupted by a soft knock on the door frame.

"Aunt Paige?"

Paige looked up at the sound of a quiet voice coming from the doorway to her hospital room, smiling when she saw her nephews peeking shyly around the edge of the doorway.

"Hey, there are my heroes," she said, proudly. She gestured at them to come into the room, and they crept slowly closer to the bed. "What are you doing here? It's the middle of the night," she added, glancing out the window at the darkness that lay beyond.

"We wanted to see if you and the baby were okay," Chris told her, as they stopped beside Henry's cot and peered down at the baby lying in her sleeping husband's arms.

"We're fine," Paige said, reassuringly. "See for yourself," she added, nodding down at her son.

"He's so tiny," Wyatt breathed, reaching out and brushing the baby's head with his fingers.

"You saved his life, you know," Paige commented. "If you two hadn't healed him-"

"It was Wyatt's idea," Chris told her, solemnly, clambering up on the bed beside her and carefully arranging himself against her side. "I just tried to help."

"I am very proud of both of you," Paige told them, quietly, kissing them both on the head as Wyatt climbed up and curled up on her other side. "You were very brave, in the bank."

_"We're all very proud of you,"_ her mother added, and Wyatt's eyes went almost comically wide as he whipped his head around to stare at the ghosts.

"Who are you?" he whispered, staring at them in amazement.

"Do you remember how I told you that I was adopted?" Paige asked, and both boys nodded. "Well," she continued, "this is my mom and my dad."

"You were at the bank," Chris said, slowly, as he stared at the ghosts, and the sound of his voice jerked Henry out of sleep.

"What's with all the noise?" Henry muttered, suddenly, his voice groggy with sleep. "Paige?"

"Hey, honey," she said, affectionately, leaning over the edge of her bed to look down at him. "You okay?"

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" he asked, rhetorically, pushing himself up, carefully, mindful of the baby cradled in his arms. "By the way, you've given me enough heart attacks to last me the rest of my life."

"I'm sorry," Paige said, quietly, and Henry reached up with his free hand to squeeze hers, gently.

He started to say something, but then he cut himself off when he saw the other people in the room.

"Honey?" he murmured, questioningly, nodding at her parents. "Aren't your parents dead?"

_"Oh, we still are," _her mother said, a little too cheerfully in Paige's opinion. _"We just like to check up on Paige from time to time."_

"You knew when you married me that my dead relatives would be popping in all the time," Paige pointed out, and Henry nodding, accepting her logic. "Of course," Paige added, pointedly, with a mock glare at her parents, "they usually try to avoid public places where other people can see them."

_"We can't stay long," _her father told her. _"We just wanted to make sure that you were all right, sweetheart, you and the baby, both."_

"We're fine, thanks to you and the boys," Paige said, smiling at her parents. "Hey," she added, quickly, when they started to fade from view, "stop by to see all your grandkids, sometime. The girls would really like to meet you."

_"We will," _her mother told her, her voice going distant, and then they were gone.

"You okay?" Henry asked, quietly, as she stared wistfully at the spot where her parents had been standing.

"Yeah," Paige told him, smiling sadly. "It's just hard – they can't stop by very often, and they can't stay very long when they do. I know I'm lucky getting to see them as much as I do, but it doesn't feel like enough, you know?"

"You've still got us," Chris piped up, and Paige hugged him to her.

"I know I do, sweetie," she said, as he and Wyatt snuggled up against her sides. "I love you both, so much."

"And," Henry spoke up, as he stood up from his cot, cradling the baby carefully to his chest, "you've got someone else who's been waiting to meet you."

A grin broke out over Paige's face as she freed her arms from around Wyatt and Chris's shoulders, reaching eagerly for their son as Henry handed him carefully to her.

"Hi, angel," she crooned, at the baby, brushing a finger lightly over his cheek. Her son blinked up at her, bright blue eyes watching her, curiously, and he grabbed her finger in a surprisingly strong grip. "Hi, baby. Welcome home."


End file.
